I'd go with "liberated" myself. FWIW, the original meaning was something more like "to step away from" or "to withdraw from" something. So you may have retired from work, but you couldn't be generically retired.

The Wizard wrote:Unemployed.I myself will be unemployed for first time ever (since end of college in 1973) on March 8th!

We graduated the same year. Wow. I have planned to retire for at least 5 years now. For all of you who don't know what to say, you can say you are a consultant. That is always true. I actually am now but unfortunately they are so happy with me where I am consulting that they offered me a full time job. I did decline but they just asked me to do a second full day a week which I agreed to. My tax reduction strategies will now have to wait another year.

This might work because retired is only half the story. You really retire from something to something, but if you say only "retired," that just says from something. If you say "free," it covers both. I think... Whatever, I like FREE.

This might work because retired is only half the story. You really retire from something to something, but if you say only "retired," that just says from something. If you say "free," it covers both. I think... Whatever, I like FREE.

But FREE also does not tell what one retires to. It needs an object such as FREE-to-sleep-in, FREE-to-read-Tolstoy, FREE-to-bike, FREE-to-walk-Camino-de-Santiago, FREE-to-tell-off-your-boss, etc.

My wife recently quit the workforce, and she didn't like just answering "no" if people asked if she worked, so I told her to start saying she's retired... because really, that's what she is...

Maybe I can join her in 8-10 years (She's 8 years older than me, so it's perfectly fair for me to work another 8-10 years... Now if 12 years go by, and I'm not close to retiring, I going to send her back to work!)

This might work because retired is only half the story. You really retire from something to something, but if you say only "retired," that just says from something. If you say "free," it covers both. I think... Whatever, I like FREE.

But FREE also does not tell what one retires to. It needs an object such as FREE-to-sleep-in, FREE-to-read-Tolstoy, FREE-to-bike, FREE-to-walk-Camino-de-Santiago, FREE-to-tell-off-your-boss, etc.

Victoria

But it does include the "to" because saying you're free means free from work AND free to do what you want. With "free," you don't have to say what the "to" is anymore than you have to say what the "from" is. The old word "retired" can't do that and it should be retired (not freed as it's not going to anything).